Jefferson Parish public school officials Tuesday unveiled a list of five schools they are flagging for possible closure after applying a formula that factors in academic performance and enrollment trends. The schools tagged to merge into other campuses are Kate Middleton Elementary in Gretna, Norbert Rillieux Elementary in Waggaman, St. Ville Academy in Harvey, Ralph Bunche Academy in Metairie and Waggaman School.

Mark Waller, The Times-PicayuneThe Jefferson Parish School Board at a meeting in May.

Middleton and Rillieux are traditional schools. The other three are alternative sites for struggling students.

After hearing the announcement from Deputy Superintendent for Instruction Richard Carpenter, the School Board scheduled public hearings on the proposed closures for Feb. 27 and Feb. 28. It could take final votes on the fates of the campuses in March.

Officials argue that long-term declines in enrollment, increases in the number of school sites and employees in the Jefferson school system and tight financial conditions pose the need to close and consolidate schools.

Carpenter said Middleton students would attend William Hart Elementary in Gretna and Terrytown Elementary under the plan. Rillieux students would attend Lucile Cherbonnier Elementary in Waggaman.

The St. Ville program would move to the campus of John Ehret High in Marrero. The Bunche program would move to Alfred Bonnabel Magnet Academy High in Kenner. Waggaman students would move to the West Bank Community School in Marrero.

Last week Carpenter presented a rubric to a board committee that assigns points to schools using enrollment and academic data. The board voted to endorse the criteria Tuesday.

Carpenter said administrators used the point system to filter candidates for closure but then weighed other factors, such as transportation costs, student travel times to new schools and ramifications for racial desegregation of schools, before making the recommendations.

"What it does for us is it narrows the field for discussion," Carpenter said.

"We went case by case, school by school, up the rubric," considering practical arguments for and against maintaining the schools that amassed the most closure points, he said.

One board member, Cedric Floyd, voted against the formula, saying he agrees closures are necessary but argued the most relevant measure to identify the schools is the number of empty seats, as opposed to counting enrollment without consideration for available space.

"Yes, I feel like there should be school consolidation and school closing," Floyd said. "But I may not agree with the recipe."

Jeannine Thibodeaux, a first-grade teacher at Rillieux, told the board that the closure plan is causing anxiety on that campus.

"We're concerned about the reaction of our students with iLEAP and LEAP coming up shortly," Thibodeaux said, referring to standardized testing. "We're also concerned about the morale of our faculty."

She said it would help ease teachers' concerns if the school system unveiled a process for placing teachers from the schools that might be going offline.

In total, the plan affects 725 of the school system's 46,500 students and potentially could save $1.9 million in 2012-13, Carpenter said. It also calls for closing the West Bank regional administration building in Marrero and moving those offices to the school system's headquarters under construction in Harvey.

Carpenter said administrators also are weighing how to relieve overcrowded conditions at three schools, Estelle Elementary in Marrero, Alice Birney Elementary in Metairie and A.C. Alexander Elementary in Kenner.

And he said other schools with low academic performance ratings, their names not yet announced, could be joining the list of campuses undertaking school turnaround campaigns.